A number of different arrangements for determining the throughput of agricultural harvesting machines have been proposed in the past, like sensing the torque for driving the feederhouse or cross auger of a platform or corn head. The sensed value can be used for controlling the propelling speed of the harvesting machine or recorded and geo-referenced in a map for agronomic purposes, like determining fertilizer amounts. These arrangements provide information about the mass or volume of plants per land area unit.
Corn plants are harvested with corn heads mounted at the front of agricultural harvesting machines, like combines or forage harvesters. During operation, stalk rolls pull down adjacent rows of corn plants and the ears of corn of the plants are snapped by stripper plates. The corn heads comprise a number of row harvesting units arranged side by side, each of the row harvesting units has a pair of stalk rolls, or one stalk roll interacting with a rigid wall, for pulling the plants down. The stripper plates are mounted above the stalk rolls, forming a forwardly extending elongate gap, through which the plant is pulled down by the stalk rolls. The distance between the stripper plates is generally manually adjustable and selected such that the stalk can pass, while the ears are removed from the stalks by the stripper plates and fed by a conveyor, usually a chain conveyor, to a cross auger feeding the ears to the interior of the harvesting machine.